I often buy books in bookshops, real-world, bricks & mortar bookshops, even though I know their overheads for premises and staff make it very likely I'll be charged more for the book than if I bought it online. Why? Because I'm stupid. Also, perhaps, because I like to browse the shop: I like the atmosphere of a bookshop; I like the serendipitous stumbling-upon of new titles; I like to be reminded of other books I've enjoyed and to compare them to potential purchases; browsing for books is a pleasure in itself beyond the mere function of acquiring the book at the end of it. For this, I let bookshops overcharge me. I can live with the fact that the entertainment I get from browsing bookshops isn't free.
Interesting therefore to see on Blognation that Jott is offering Amazon shopping by telephone: call them up, tell them the product you want to buy from Amazon, and they'll email back with prices options. With just a couple of tweaks that could replace my expensive offline book-buying experience without diminishing my bookshop-browsing fun. Imagine - pick up a book in a bookshop. Call Jott (or whoever) and tell their system what book you're thinking of buying. Hear the best price for buying it online, with delivery times. Put the book back on the shelf, and confirm to Jott you want the book delivered for that price.
Same for computers, iPods, cars...anything you can go to a shop to see but can probably buy more cheaply online. Until the online shopping experience is as rich and informative as holding the product in your hand - which, let's face it, is a long away off - a service you can call on your mobile from the shop to get the online retail price is probably the best solution. Currently Jott doesn't seem to quite do that - according to Blognation it emails you a list of results. But get the whole thing done by phone, including prices, delivery options and fulfilment, and we're there - the real-world shopping experience, including the gratification of immediate purchase, at online retail prices.
The only downside is that I'll miss the bookshops when they go out of business.
I don't doubt that bookshops are doomed, but this strikes me as the worst of both worlds. If you're so motivated to have the physical frisson of bookshop browsing (as I am, for sure), I think you'd want to take the book home right then and there, clutching it in your hot paw, sticky from Starbucks icing.
The Jott idea makes more sense for a book you know you want to have, rather than one you happen upon - in which case just buying it online does the job. Why on earth would someone want to use the phone for this?
Also, the price variations between different providers are so trivial, why waste more money than you're saving on the damn phone call?
Posted by: awrc | 22 November 2007 at 09:32
Awrc - I don't think we get the same things out of bookshopping. I could cheerfully leave a bookshop in the knowledge that half a dozen books were on their way to my house in a couple of days thinking my shopping had gone well.
Posted by: Seamus McCauley | 23 November 2007 at 16:36